India's home minister resigns in wake of attacks

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, November 29, 2008

CHICAGO

By William Spain

McClatchy News Service

India's home minister has stepped down as a result of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, according to media reports, as the country begins to take stock of -- and lay blame for -- the strikes that killed 172 and disrupted the country's financial capital last week.

Shivraj Patil offered his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has already succeeded him at the ministry, which is responsible for internal and border security.

Patil, a frequent target of ridicule in the Indian press, had presided over the ministry while the nation suffered seven terrorist attacks in as many months, with a total death toll of about 400.

Meanwhile, tensions are rising between India and neighboring Pakistan, which have fought three wars with each other -- all of which India won -- since both countries achieved independence from Britain in 1947.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals had been warming over the last few years but chilled quickly in recent days as public anger over the attacks rises and Indian officials pin the blame on "elements in Pakistan."

Only one of the gunmen survived, 21-year-old Ajmal Amir Kamal, who has reportedly told Indian interrogators that all the attackers were Pakistani.

But Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, said Sunday that the two nations need to work together to fight terrorism and not throw around accusations.

He told ABC News that the terrorists were "non-state actors," and that the two countries need to "strengthen each other, rather than fall into the trap of the terrorists, who want us to fight with each other so that they can get greater strength."